


Thomas in the making

by elizainlove



Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-29
Updated: 2014-09-29
Packaged: 2018-02-19 06:56:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2379056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elizainlove/pseuds/elizainlove
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Just one last thing” He leant in and gave the other lad a quick but tender kiss</p>
<p>-One of my potential many back stories for Thomas.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thomas in the making

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is a little confusing in its time jumping as i didn't label anything but just assume he is getting older as it goes along and you should be dandy ;)   
> Enjoy my lovelies

Thomas giggled running in and out of the chair legs of the high seated stools in his family’s kitchen.   
“Oh to be small again” His farther grinned as his wife caught Thomas under his arms and lifted him to her side, tickling her son, making him squirm and laugh harder.   
“He won’t be this small for much longer if his brother is anything to go by” Spoke Mr Barrow’s shop assistant as he came into the work room with a new clock for repair “How tall is Percy now? He’s growin up to be a strapping young lad”  
“Percy” mimicked Thomas from his mother’s arms- looking at her questioningly as if to ask where his brother was.  
“He’s at school isn’t he Thomas? Playing with the other big boys”  
“That will be you in a few years son” his father spoke from his work bench “Ahhh that’s got it” and the clock he was working on began to chime.   
XXX  
“Thomas?” His mother’s soft knock at his bedroom door and quiet call made him jump slightly as he read by candle light. He was meant to be asleep and he knew this, but the book his farther had brought back from town for his wife was simply enchanting.   
Mrs Barrow’s head appeared round the door first as she wandered sleepily into his room “What are you still doing up, darling?” She brushed his hair back from his face with a gentle had and looked at the book “I sent you to bed hours ago. Are you still reading? You know you will be exhausted tomorrow” She peered more closely at the book by the dim light “Is that my new book? Why on earth are you reading that?” her smiled was confused but caring “My love that is for mummies to read, not their sons”  
Thomas held the book tighter in case his mother tried to take it off him “I think it’s wonderful”  
A slight frown appeared on her brow before Mrs Barrow said quietly, sitting down on the chair next to her sons bed “You like the love story?” Thomas nodded innocently “alright. Who is your favourite?”  
Thomas answered instantly “Mr Amant” then he flicked back to the page before the first chapter and pointed at a black and white print drawing there “He is terribly handsome”  
His mother looked at the page for a while, simply sitting in silence.  
Thomas didn’t understand “Mumma?”   
At this she looked up at her son. He was only 10 years old.   
She could already see the struggles her youngest son would have to endure if her suspicions turned out to be true “Yes, yes he is rather handsome isn’t he?” She shook her head ever so slightly and smiled, bringing a hand up to brush Thomas’ cheek “How are you with the long words? Do you want me to read to you tomorrow?”  
XXX  
Thomas made a fist and punched the older teenager who was trying to pin him down. It was a direct hit. The boy flew back off him as Annabelle finally succeeded in trying to drag him off her friend.   
“What in the name of the Lord above is going on here?” Came the angry voice of the housekeeper. When all parties remained silent, stood to attention but looking at the floor she said sternly “Well? An explanation if you please?”  
Thomas silently implored Annabelle not to say anything. But try as he might the girl always did what she thought was the right thing when under pressure “Bill tried to kiss Thomas, Mrs Eve”  
There was silence in the room as both boys winced.  
That was not what had happened.   
Bill and Thomas had been having a ‘thing’ for a couple of weeks now- and Annabelle had caught on…or at least he thought she had. Now it appeared she had taken his blushes when she had brought up the subject of her seeing Bill kiss him briefly in the hall to mean he did not want to kiss Bill back.   
Why hadn’t she just kept quiet? It had been her confronting Bill and telling him to keep away that had caused the other teenager to attack Thomas in the first place. He must have thought Thomas had spilled his secret.  
“In my office. All of you” He voice was as quiet as Venom  
XXX  
Thomas clutched at his crumpled, well-loved book as he sat on the train back home. It had been his mothers and remained to this day his favourite. Oh lord his mother. How were she and his dad going to react to the news he had been fired? And for the reasons he had been fired….  
Mrs Eve had taken it upon herself to let both Bill and he go, but not before she had written and sent off two almost identical letters telling both their parents what had happened.   
Thomas hadn’t been able to let Bill take all the blame. So he had told their formidable housekeeper that he had wanted to be kissed. She had exploded, damning them both and firing them on the spot. She said she was leaving it up to their family’s to decide how to punish the boys- whether it be prison or intensive treatment in an institute. Thomas didn’t know which sounded worse.   
He had considered simply running away- getting another job somewhere completely new, but the thought of never seeing his family again had been too much. Especially his brother.   
On his arrival back at the gate of his home however he was met not by angry parents, police or men in white coats, but his brother sitting calmly on the front wall.   
He spoke before his wary younger brother could say anything “Let’s take a walk shall we, Thomas?”  
“uh..” Thomas felt nervous, ‘walk’ together was not something they had done since they were very young “I should really” he indicated to his bag and then the house   
“no” His brother shook his head “No, I think not” He hopped off the wall and took a folded up envelope from his pocket “We need to have a talk don’t we, little brother?”  
Thomas’ eyes widened almost comically and he took a few steps back, considering making a run for it. His brother knew him too well “Come now, we both know I could catch you within a few strides” Percy’s face split into an easy smile before he took Thomas’ bag and led him away from the house, a firm hand on his upper arm.  
Once they reached the river Percy sat. Setting Thomas’ bag down next to him and patting the ground on his other side.  
Thomas remained standing- twitching flightily.  
“Sit- Thomas” His eyes were as stern as his voice and he had lost his jovial nature he had held outside the house “Unless you are too afraid to get your clothes dirty?” He smirked slightly as Thomas’ expression set in a scowl and he headed down the bank to his brother and sat- inches away from where his brother had indicated. It was his unspoken protest.   
“What do you want?” His voice was cold. Thomas had decided he was going to be distant and uncaring. If he was going to be kicked out then he should at least keep his self-respect.  
His brother sighed and lent back on his elbows, legs stretched out in front of him in complete contrast to Thomas who sat with crossed legs and arms “So you like the colour lavender then?”  
Thomas closed his eyes, willing himself not to lose composure. He had always hated that term- it made him out to be some dress-wearing dandy rather than a hard working young man.  
“You don’t defend yourself?” His brothers’ voice sounded slightly surprised and it lacked the mocking tone from before  
“Don’t say it like that” His voice was level and curt- he kept his eyes facing forwards, refusing to look at Percy  
Percy snorted “Oh I am sorry. How would you like me to say it?” he sat up  
Thomas’ cheeks flushed. Dammit.  
“I mean, I am trying to tell my brother I know he takes it up the arse”  
Thomas’ face burned and he turned to glare at his brother “No I bloody don’t!” It was true…he had never…Bill had always been the one to…  
“HA!” Percy was triumphant- Thomas remembered he was meant to be being cold and distant and quickly looked forwards again “I got you to look at me!”  
“Don’t be such a child, Percy”  
There was silence for a while before Thomas continued “Do Mum and Dad know?” he was looking at his lap. He hated this- feeling exposed.  
“yeah…” Thomas whipped around to look at him, eyes wide and Percy held up his hands defensively “They didn’t see the letter! No, I was the one who got the joy of reading that” he took out the offending object and threw it onto the ground between them.   
Thomas picked it up and unfolded it. Phrases like ‘unfit to walk among normal people’, ‘a danger to others around him’, ‘is a corruptible force’, ‘I expect you to take necessary action’ jumped out at him and his eyes stung. He thrust the letter back at his brother, not wanting to read it through completely.   
“I think they have always known…” He looked at Thomas who was staring blankly ahead “I used to see them getting edgy when you were too animated around other boys when we were younger…Just small things like looking at your old best mate for too long- I didn’t get it until now”  
“Alfie” Thomas said flatly  
“Yeah…did you two ever?” He sounded nervous   
“No” Thomas didn’t want to feel any emotions- he didn’t expect the letter to be so harsh “No, he wasn’t like that”  
“How do you know? Oh god you didn’t try anything did you?”  
“You know I’m not that stupid” Thomas snapped   
“Well by the sounds of this letter you tried and failed with this lad”  
“It wasn’t like that” Thomas fidgeted, this was too weird “He’s like me too…he likes me too…” He dipped his head again “We were sort of a couple, only Annabelle found out and she seemed to assume he was forcing me”  
Percy’s face showed only shock “Shit…Is this guy okay? What happened?”  
“He attacked me when she confronted him” Thomas bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from crying “I punched him back and I think I might have broken his nose…I didn’t mean to do that”  
Percy let out and nervous laugh “Not all that lavender then if the two of you sort things out by brawling”  
XXX  
Telling his parents he had been fired had been just as bad as he had expected. However when he looked back on it- as he was doing now- he was glad for the event as it had consequently brought him closer to his parents. Percy had told him that if Thomas wished him to keep his secret from the rest of their small family then he would, but he would rather that his younger brother was truthful with their parents. Percy had been great about everything.  
He was glad he had persuaded him to be honest- Thomas knew he wouldn’t have felt right standing by the two graves of his parents- as he did now- knowing that they would never have truly known their own son.   
His mother and farther, like Percy, had been better about his secret than he ever could have hoped. They had been accepting, if a little saddened by the conformation.  
Bill had not been so lucky. Percy had silently pointed to a tiny paragraph in the paper barley a month after he had returned-   
‘The body of a young man was recently recovered on the road side nearby York Prison and has been identified today as the recently convicted Bill Perkins. No further investigation will be carried out due to the horrendous nature of his crimes.’  
Thomas had nodded once, got up from the table and left the room in silence.   
Percy had continued to be good to his brother throughout the upcoming years, despite taking over his family’s business for himself, leaving Thomas without a profession Thomas had tried to remain loyal.   
It was only when his childless brother passed that he discovered that Percy had run his father’s business into the ground. Leaving him with not only grief and no family, but an enormous debt he had to struggle to re-pay.   
XXX  
Thomas sat quietly in the corner, smoking. He enjoyed the rare silence that could sometimes, as if my magic fall on the servants hall of Downton Abbey and watching the smoke drift carelessly from the end of his lit cigarette settled him greatly.  
He thought again of the reason he had even started to smoke and suppressed a small smile lest anyone pass and notice. Harvey. Harvey had had been the paper boy up until recently and he and Thomas had hit it off within minutes of their first meeting.   
Thomas had been in a bad mood- yes he was proud of his new promotion from hallboy to second footman and it wasn’t even that he minded all the extra jobs he now had to do- but iron the newspaper? Really? Could his lordship not deal with having a fold in his paper? Was even that too much of a strain for him?  
So it was grudgingly that he opened the door for the paper boy- who was, in fact early and this would completely put out his carefully schedule- the little shit should know better….oh… Thomas’ brain shut up when he saw the blonde grinning at him in the doorway.  
“Hiya there” he held out the newspaper to Thomas who took it with a slightly stunned smile “You’re a tad young to be a footman aren’t ya?”  
“You’re a tad old to be a paper boy” Said Thomas instantly, grinning even more- this boys smile was infectious  
Instead of a scowl appearing across the other lads face he only smiled even more (How in the hell was that even possible?) “Yeah, ya could say that- or maybe I’m just a little more experienced?” He finished his sentence with a wink that Thomas knew had made him blush. Dammit.   
The next day the boy was early again only this time he was smoking when Thomas opened the door “Early again I see? Must we make this a habit?” He spoke with a quirked eyebrow that was a subtle hint that he was actually joking   
“We must” He handed over the paper “Cig?” he offered Thomas his half-finished cigarette and the dark haired young man looked at it for a second before taking it inexpertly “First time, hu?”  
“Something like that” Thomas muttered and he brought the fag to his lips   
“Well don’t worry, I can teach you a thing or two” their eyes met for a fraction of a second and Thomas yet again felt his cheeks flush “Suck in- hold it- suck in again, then blow out”   
Thomas’ face really was on fire and the bout of coughing that followed didn’t help  
The paper boy laughed “alright, easy! I didn’t say suck hard” He put a comforting hand on the back of Thomas’ neck   
“That thing is vile!”  
“Oh you just wait, in a few days I will have you wanting more”  
The next day Thomas brought some tea out for him and in exchange the paper boy gave him a whole cig for his own with a brief “Ta for the tea- I’m Harvey by the way”  
“Thomas” He nodded thanks Harvey for the smoke and leant in to let him light it for him. Harvey smelled intoxicating and Thomas almost lost himself for a moment when the mad idea of kissing him rushed through his mind. Stupid boy- you saw what happened to Bill. Don’t even think about it.  
Harvey was even earlier the day after and Mrs Patmore raised a questioning eyebrow and her eyes followed Thomas curiously as he exited the servants hall with two cups of tea. She wondered briefly if there could be something a little more to these two young lads becoming such close friends so fast, but then she dismissed it. Thomas Barrow that was inclined? No. He couldn’t be. There was nothing effeminate about him- was there? She’d ask Mrs Hughes later.   
On the Friday Harvey asked Thomas to the pictures. He asked casually and as if it was nothing more than two new mates hanging out “There’s this horror film on” He sounded enthusiastic and despite Thomas not being one for horrors agreed to go along anyway. Of course he was going to bloody agree, Harvey was more than a bit handsome.  
Within the first fifteen minutes of the film Thomas was glad he had said yes. The film was awful, but Harvey’s mouth was not.  
They sat in the back row right in the far away corner. Harvey had made the first move and now it was all Thomas could do to not pant or moan too loudly as he kissed his way down Thomas’ neck and fumbled to undo his trousers.   
Harvey was clearly more experienced than Bill had been- he knew exactly where to put his hands, tongue and even teeth at times to make Thomas clutch at his hair and bite his lip.   
A little over a week later Thomas found himself giddy with happiness as he clung to Harvey’s hand as he lead him up the stairs of his family home “Are you sure there will be no one in tonight?” He asked again even as Harvey pushed him up against the staircase wall and attacked his bare collar bone with his mouth  
“Mmmmmm” Harvey’s mumble sent new sensations across Thomas’ shoulder making him shiver “Yeah, I’m sure- stop asking will ya? You’re making me nervous an all” he pulled back and looked at Thomas as he flattened him back against the bed “You been caught before or somein?”  
“Yeah. Something like that”  
“Awwww, poor love. Don’t worry about that here okay?” Thomas mirrored Harvey’s reassuring grin and they went back to frantically stripping and kissing one another.   
Just as Thomas felt Harvey push into him and he felt for the first time the pressure, pain and pleasure that he could tell he loved already, he remembered how embarrassed he had been when his brother had suggested this was what he spent his time doing.   
Soon however they both realised they had nothing much in common apart from the undeniable spark between them and Thomas wasn’t at all surprised when Harvey told him he had accepted a new job in London and would be moving away soon- “Today’s me last shift” He looked sadly at the cobbled floor of the courtyard “we’ve had a good run though, hu?”  
“Yeah” Thomas felt irrationally lonely “Just one last thing” He leant in and gave the other lad a quick but tender kiss, not even giving the slightest thought to his surroundings- but apparently neither had Harvey as he kissed him back with well-practiced easy.  
XXX


End file.
